Values, Inc.: How Incorporating Values into Business and Life Can Change the World
By Dina Dwyer-Owens and Jordan Ochel
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About this ebook
Sad, but true. There are companies, too many to count, that spend countless hours and even countless dollars with experts to brainstorm their mission, vision, and values, write them down, hang them on the wall...and then walk away. While these things look good on paper, they mean nothing to the day-to-day functions of these businesses and the people they employ. And that's a tragedy that needs to stop.
When The Dwyer Group decided to operationalize its company code of values, little did we know the impact it would have on our business. Not only was the change tangible and real, shaping our business from the corner office to the front lines of our service brands around the world. But it also made our company a really fun place to work on a whole new level. We were attracting people to our home office and across our franchise service brands like never before. The Dwyer Group Code of Values brought real value to our company and our culture as we became a $1 billion annual business systemwide.
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Values, Inc. - Dina Dwyer-Owens
Tracy
Prologue
We must know that we have been created for greater things, not just to be a number in the world, not just to go for diplomas and degrees, this work and that work. We have been created in order to love and to be loved.
- Mother Teresa
It was January 2012, the prime-time hour. Months earlier, I had filmed an episode of the CBS Emmy Award–winning reality series Undercover Boss, and it was now on screens inside millions of homes.
Shortly after the episode ended, I was bombarded with e-mails, phone calls, web inquiries, cards, letters, tweets, Facebook mentions, and more. The viewers wasted no time letting me know that they were moved and inspired by the culture of our company, The Dwyer Group. Their comments were thoughtful and came from people of all walks of life—mothers, students, business leaders, prisoners, and AIDS patients. Their words and stories touched my heart and forever changed my life:
Your company has renewed my faith in corporate America.
Thank you for being so transparent and allowing yourself to be vulnerable and genuine.
It’s not often that you get to see a company operate with values and ethics.
Thanks for renewing my hope in humanity.
How is it that a forty-five-minute reality show can renew someone’s hope in humanity? Perhaps it was the love in action during the episode that did it for some of the viewers.
Wait. Love? At a company?
Yes. Love. It’s the purpose of life, and there should always be room for love wherever you are, including at work. At The Dwyer Group, we call it Living R.I.C.H.
—living purposefully with respect, integrity, customer focus, and having fun in the process. The Dwyer Group is by no means a perfect company, and we would never claim to be. After all, if every organization is run by human beings, why would ours be an exception?
But values aren’t just for companies; they’re for you and me, friends and family, parents, children, old and young alike. Values are for all of us. So even though this book primarily centers its examples around the corporate setting, these values all begin at home.
When you express values such as respect and integrity in your words and deeds, you send the message to others that they are worthy of receiving your expression of those values. In other words, they are valuable. And what’s a higher expression of love than that?
No matter who you are or what you do, or how old or young you are, know that you are not just a number in this world and that this book is written with you in mind.
Dina Dwyer-Owens
Chapter 1
Where It Begins
Your actions speak so loudly that I cannot hear what you say.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
Ben leans in and says in a hushed voice, I once overheard him saying his favorite vacations are excursions so dangerous that someone could die.
He rises back up, smirking.
Really?
Lisa says. The CEO actually said that?
Ben nods slowly, biting his lip. Anyway, read this and come by my desk to sign an acknowledgment form before the end of the day.
He drops a small booklet on her desk before walking away, disappearing into the vast field of workstations.
Lisa turns back to face her new workstation, a bay of three monitors on her horizon. She picks up the booklet, Code of Ethics.
She flips through several pages, finally settling on the section with the subheading Values.
She begins to read.
Respect
We treat others as we would like to be treated ourselves. We do not tolerate abusive or disrespectful treatment. Ruthlessness, callousness, and arrogance do not belong here.
Integrity
We work with customers and prospects openly, honestly, and sincerely. When we say we will do something, we will do it; when we say we cannot do something, then we won’t do it.
Communication
We have an obligation to communicate. Here, we take the time to talk with one another … and to listen. We believe that information is meant to move and that information moves people.
Excellence
We are satisfied with nothing less than the very best in everything we do. We will continue to raise the bar for everyone. The great fun here will be for all of us to discover just how good we really can be.
Wow, she thinks, this is great! I’ve never seen a company this serious about values.
Hey, I’m Dave. You’re new here, right?
She turns toward the voice behind her. A stout man holds out his hand. She shakes it.
Yeah, it’s my first day.
Cool. Well, don’t let that stuff psych you out,
he says, pointing to the page she was just reading. The only part they really take seriously is Excellence. Have you heard about the performance reviews here?
Lisa shakes her head.
He snorts. It’s called ‘Rank and Yank.’ It’s not just your boss that reviews you; your teammates rate you as well. You’re rated on a scale from one to five with one being the top performers. Each department is required to fire fifteen percent of all the fives on the team every year, even if they’re decent employees. It’s pretty brutal, actually. But I was a one my first year and got a five-million-dollar bonus. Not a bad gig for the winners, huh?
He watches her expression, looking for a sign of approval. After a moment of silence, he continues, "Anyway, there’s only one thing we all want here: money. All the executives openly admit that’s
their biggest goal too. If you’re willing to do anything, you can get filthy rich in this place. So, a word to the wise: Watch your back—there’s no such thing as friends here. It’s every man for himself." Dave walks away.
That was strange, she thinks.
After Lisa finishes reading the booklet, she sets out to find Ben, her supervisor. When she finds his office, he notices her approaching his desk. Did you finish it? Boring stuff, right?
He chuckles. Here’s the acknowledgment form.
He slides it across his desk. Sign this, work hard to impress us, and you’ll get everything you ever dreamed of. Trust me, this company is going places.
He holds out a pen and smiles. Welcome to Enron.
---
Although the characters and dialogue in that story are fictional, the facts are not. The company’s Code of Ethics, the aggressive performance reviews with mandatory 15 percent firings, the widespread and unabashed lust for money, the life-endangering adventures—all of them are true. It was CEO Jeffrey Skilling, in fact, who said that life-endangering adventures were his favorite. It was also Skilling who implemented the forced ranking evaluations at Enron.
To hear these things wouldn’t be a surprise for anyone who knew his character. At Harvard Business School, he was a successful and driven student who was once asked by a professor what he would do if his company produced a product that might cause harm or death to his customers. He replied, I’d keep making and selling the product. My job as a businessman is to be a profit center and to maximize return to shareholders. It is the government’s job to step in if a product is dangerous.
In one act of corruption, there was no attempt by the executives to conceal their greed. After it was discovered by internal auditors that a top-performing oil trader at Enron had secretly funneled $2 million into a personal account, instead of being fired or even reprimanded, the thieving employee was praised by an executive for misdirecting external auditors and was told to keep making us millions.
Today, it is apparent to everyone that the executives were never serious about their Code of Ethics. There were signs of the company’s blatant disregard for ethical behavior everywhere. In fact, Enron’s board voted twice to suspend the Code of Ethics when doing the legal and right thing stood in the way of large personal and company gains.
How could they not have seen the writing on the wall? What if they had been serious about their Code of Ethics? Would they have avoided one of the largest corporate bankruptcies and white-collar scandals in history?
At least one former Enron executive claims they would have. Andrew Fastow, former CFO, now admits, I lost my moral compass and I did many things I regret.
How many companies and executives over the past decades have we seen venture down the path toward the same sad fate?
Without a doubt, I truly believe living out shared values is one of the key factors to a company’s lasting success. Thousands of successful companies around the world have a code of ethics
or a code of values
that has been embedded deeply in their culture. These codes are very similar to The Dwyer Group’s Code of Values®. But unless a company’s leadership exemplifies values in action, a boilerplate set of written values or ethics doesn’t contribute to or define that company’s success.
The Values, Inc. Compass
Why did I title the book Values, Inc.? Our values define us. They are the signposts we’ve chosen for our lives, reminding us of the direction we want to go. Sometimes we follow our values; too often we ignore them. Inc., as you probably already know, is a business abbreviation that stands for incorporated.
If we incorporate our values into not only our business lives but also our personal lives, we will have a compass that shows us the direction toward personal and professional success, that shows us the journey to happiness and gives us the ability to change our lives and the lives of those around us. Many times, our compass comes from a person who changed our life, someone we aspire to be like, someone whose values we share.
My compass was given to me by my father, Don Dwyer.
To many, Don was a man of great respect and integrity. As a child of the Great Depression, he was driven by a vision of success. When he earned the right to lead half of a carpet-cleaning franchise in 1981, he didn’t pick the highest-earning franchisees; he picked the most honest and ethical franchisees. For him, a person’s success wasn’t defined by money; it was defined by character and values. He knew that in order to build a company that could create positive change in the world, he first needed people who shared his vision and values.
He once said, The strength of a business’s foundation depends entirely on the values of the owner and of the people who operate the business.
He knew you couldn’t succeed in business or in life if you lowered your standards. To him, no amount of money or material things was worth putting the business at risk. So, how would he ensure that his vision of building a lasting, respectful company would outlive him? It began with the Code of Values he wrote and established within his first franchise company, Rainbow International Carpet Dyeing and Cleaning Company (today known as Rainbow International Restoration).
Don always said that his proudest accomplishment was when so many hardworking franchisees thanked him for helping them achieve their dreams. This was part of what made him an icon in the franchising industry. Changing people’s lives and helping them achieve their dreams changed his life and helped him achieve his dreams too. I believe that changing lives is the first step toward changing the world, and it all begins with values.
This story of success through values is not unique to The Dwyer Group, however. Others include Southwest Airlines, JetBlue, Zappos, Disney, and Starbucks, just to name a few. These companies have reputations that instill trust in millions of customers. These brands stand in stark contrast to names like Enron, Lehman Brothers, and WorldCom. And it’s not hard to think of the reason why.
Companies That Change the Paradigm
On Valentine’s Day 2007, a JetBlue flight bound for Cancun, Mexico, was trapped on the tarmac for more than ten hours. The passengers were locked in a plane with no power, no food, inadequate lavatories, and no explanation for the delay. What made the whole ordeal even more infuriating was that the entire time, the terminal was in sight.
When the media picked up the news about the stranded passengers, the public response was a furor. Unlike many companies that would have put their public relations team into frenetic overdrive, JetBlue did not rationalize or excuse its behavior. Instead, the company openly admitted its mistake and apologized for the inexcusable delay.
But the people at